Illusions vs Reality and Gatsby's Books

As discussed in class, the Valley of Ash represents many things, such as a place of absolute poverty, hopelessness, and sin. It is also interesting how the Valley of Ash is placed in between New York, a place where Gatsby seems to be the most successful, dreaming up several glamorous plans, such as meeting Daisy for the first time in years, and the West Egg, Gatsby's home where he forces himself to constantly remind himself of his reality without Daisy. Thus, New York represents a place of dreams and illusions, while the West Egg represents a constant reminder of reality. The Valley of Ashes represents the middle ground that exists between illusions and reality, foreshadowing the illusions that Gatsby creates about his own past. The eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg on the billboard are first described to the reader in a manner in which it is not clear that the eyes do not actually belong to a person. Fitzgerald creates an illusion for the reader, describing the eyes as "gigantic" and "looming" without referencing the billboard for more than three sentences, causing readers to create their own image of these strange eyes. However, Fitzgerald quickly returns to reality by writing that the eyes are on a billboard. These eyes act to foreshadow the illusions that, like Fitzgerald, Gatsby creates himself over a long period of time and will suddenly fall apart.

Gatsby's own books in the West Ham also indicate the lies that he created about himself. Owl-Eyes says that Gatsby "didn't cut the pages", suggesting that the multitude of books in his library are for show only - Gatsby doesn't have any intention of actually reading the books. Furthermore, the books are held in a "high Gothic library, paneled with carved English Oak", showing Gatsby's aristocratic background. However, Gatsby may not actually be from such an aristocratic background, suggesting that Gatsby's self-made foundation, like the Gothic library and the books inside, may simply be a large sham.

The History Teacher

In class, many people believed that the teacher was a good teacher in the sense that he truly cares about the children. He strives to give them what he thinks is a quality education that will preserve their innocence. However, I don't believe that he truly cares about the children. He seems to go through the motions of being a teacher, and then returns home not caring about the children themselves, but whether they receive the lies that he tells. The language throughout the poem is relatively lax and simple, similar to an everyday conversation language, reflecting the attitude of the teacher himself. His general attitude towards the students' future is one of indifference and apathy. Furthermore, the poem doesn't rhyme and lacks a complex rhythm, giving the poem a feel of simplicity, again reflecting the teachers indifference towards his students' education. The teacher "walk[ing] home past flower beds and white picket fences" also stresses the teacher's apathy towards not only the students, but his own life. The symbol of a man returning home after work paired along with the symbol of the average american lifestyle - the white picket fence and flowers - represents the teacher's own lack of career ambition and passion in his own life. He is perfectly content with his life and doesn't have a reason to properly educate his class. It seems that this history teacher embodies the average American. Someone who works the normal 9-5 job, and returns home thinking about trivial things, such as wondering "if they would believe that soldiers in the Boer War told long, rambling stories" instead of thinking about how to better themselves.

Pauline's Tooth

Morrison writes about Pauline's tooth in order to describe how society is so easily poisoned and destroyed by racism. As the "brown speck" first forms, it is small and insignificant, "easily mistaken for food", paralleling racism which was first mistaken as a positive to society, like the speck. However, the racism and slavery cut deep wounds into society's morals, doing so slowly and carefully so that society didn't truly realize the overpowering negative impacts that racism had. Over time, racism simply became an accepted way of life for both the blacks and whites, and eventually, the suppressed fought back against the racism, "leaving a ragged stump behind". As stumps are commonly associated with trees and life, the stump left behind was supposed to grow back and create a new, healthy tooth, representing the birth of a society with new morals. However, the damage already done by racism was debilitating and the tooth wasn't able to grow back. Morrison also writes that "there must have been the conditions... that would allow [the speck] to exist in the first place". In this final sentence, Morrison pins the blame of racism and the eventual destruction of society on society itself, describing society as the enabler that brings its own downfall.

Later, Pauline again has a tooth pulled out, this time by a piece of candy she eats while watching a movie, again, representing society hurting itself. By eating candy, an obviously unhealthy food, she hurts herself and causes her tooth to fall out, dropping her self-esteem. This small change in her features causes a significant change in her lifestyle. Juxtaposed with the perfect Jean Harlow, Pauline is suddenly a broken women, unable to fit the mold of the ideal women, leading to her being constantly beat by her own husband. The image of the idealized women, in this case Jean Harlow, cast by the media forces women to match a certain framework. Any digression, however small, from the norm is unacceptable. Again, society harms itself through not only racism, but the objectification of women.

Dandelions

Morrison in The Bluest Eye pins much of the self-esteem issues that Claudia has on society itself, including other African-American people and Claudia herself. When first noticing the dandelions, Claudia asks "why...do people call them weeds?" (41). At first, she feels sympathy for the dandelions, most likely because she relates to it; like Claudia, the dandelions are rejected for their lack of beauty. However, Claudia is unable to understand why the dandelions are ugly, and why their seemingly beautiful petals are rejected by most of society. In the same way, Claudia is unable to understand why she is apparently ugly. Believing beauty is a concrete object, Claudia even dismembers dolls to "find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped [her]" (20). After Mr. Yacobowski ridcules and treats her as a lesser being, however, she returns and say says "[the dandelions] are ugly... they are weeds" (43), almost if hypnotized and poisoned by Yacoboski, who, in reality, is the weed rather than the dandelions or Claudia.

The passage about the dandelion reveals much about Claudia and her own personality. She is very easily manipulated to believe what others believe due to her already low self-esteem. To Claudia, if others say the dandelion is ugly, it must be true. If others say she is ugly, it must be an unchangeble fact. This reveals Claudia's desire to be accepted by others around her. When describing Maureen Peal, Claudia says "She enchanted the entire school... She never had to search for anybody to eat with in the cafeteria" (62-63). Here, Claudia seems to be in a dreamy state, almost as if simply talking about Maureen would cause her to become accepted. Claudia views Maureen as a superior - someone so beautiful that she wouldn't associate herself with someone as ugly as Claudia, further pushing Claudia to question her own beauty.

Plastic

Some seek to explain the social differences  between men and women through their respective childhood toys. Such analysis makes sense as it as a fact that many human characteristics are explained by experiences a child underwent during his/her childhood. However, when investigating the impact that Barbies have had on women, Prager seems to overlook many seemingly obvious facts.

Prager implies that men are at fault for the problems women face by asking, "Did Mr. Ryan design Barbie as a weapon?" The underlying message behind this statement seems to say that men, somehow, purposely designed the Barbie to suppress women from a young age, similar to Big Brother. However, it is obvious that this was not Ryan's purpose when designing the Barbie. Ryan does not use easily manipulated plastic for the body of Barbie to symbolism him molding women to a certain standard. He actually uses plastic because it was the most efficient and profitable substance to use for the Barbie at the time. In fact, Ryan must've used a moldable substance because a naturally solid substance that is impossible to mold doesn't exist. Thus, even if Ryan's purpose wasn't to suppress young children, the symbolism of the plastic is suspect at best. With this logic, every plastic object could be seen as an attempt to mold humans into a certain template, which certainly isn't true. 

Furthermore, Jack Ryan isn't even seen as the mastermind behind Barbie. Instead, Ruth Handler, a women, is largely credited for the invention of Barbie. This is even confirmed by a quick google search - a search of "barbie inventor" doesn't even mention Jack Ryan once in any articles, instead mentioning Ruth Handler as the inventor. Jack Ryan worked as the head of the research and development department and was in charge of some of the design of Barbie and the accessories that Barbie carried. He was not in charge of the main body of the Barbie, as Prager suggests. Moreover, because the Mattel Corporation created the Barbie, it would be near impossible for all men to create the Barbie. Instead, the collective effort of both men and women would be needed to create a product that created $944M in profit for Mattel in 2013. Thus, it is absolutely false that a women had no hand in designing Barbie, going against a large part of Prager's piece.